Occasional Thoughts and Observations From My Career as a Financial Professional

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What (Not!) To Do In Troubled Times – Part 2

Regrettably, I’ve seen my share of companies in troubled times. Some CEOs step up and take effective action, but others are less effective. Here are some unfortunately common behaviors that have led to failure. This group of behaviors falls under the category:

General Confusion

Change plans constantly, and don’t inform all of your mangers of the changes – There is always the fear that plans aren’t working, or aren’t working fast enough. Plans need to be carefully thought through and executed at all levels of the organization if they are going to succeed. A rapid succession of poorly conceived plans is worse than no plan at all.

Make radical decisions, then reverse them without explanation – Wild decisions such as cutting the price of your flagship product by 50% (it’s a fictitious example, but just barely) are not the only way to increase business. Everyone, including you, knows it’s not going to work, and abruptly changing your mind a few weeks later will only make you look more foolish.

Find reasons why managers who don’t always agree with you should be absent from meetings – It’s nice to hear from people who agree with you, but you need to hear every point of view, especially in troubled times.

Constantly reshuffle management responsibilities – Sure, you sometimes wish your managers had stronger or different capabilities. But you hired and promoted them for their expertise, experience and judgment in certain areas of the business, and they are the ones who are going to help you through the rough patches. Juggling responsibilities just causes confusion and resentment, and after a while, you’ll be the only one who knows what is going on… maybe.

Appoint capable managers to lead new initiatives, but don’t let them actually do anything – Is this really the time for bold new initiatives? Or are your senior managers more effectively used to improve the core business? Don’t waste your most valuable resources on projects that you will probably never green-light.

Think about it. Does any of this feel familiar? … Really think about it.